Do you think it's right for people to use their government connections to become billionaires?

Question

Erik Prince, Republican with insider connections was able to found Blackwater at age 27 with his mommy's and daddy's seed money. Now, he's a billionaire.

"Blackwater bills the U.S. government $1,222 per day for a single “protective security specialist,” the report says. That works out to $445,891 on an annual basis, far higher than it would cost the military to provide the same service."

“Privatizing is working exceptionally well for Blackwater,” said Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., committee chairman. “The question for this hearing is whether outsourcing to Blackwater is a good deal to the American taxpayer, whether it’s a good deal for the military and whether it’s serving our national interest in Iraq.”

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21095964/

Answer 1

Do you think it's right to demand that people who do business with the government not be successful, and that success should not be reflected in profits?

Answer 2

There is a problem here.

It is the thinking that building up the military (or the government in general) would be acceptable to the US citizenship in any way shape or form.

History has demonstrated time and time again that people on the Government payroll are cheaper then contractors, yet, the Government is forced to hire on contractors for many reasons. (OMB Circular A76, politicians promising to reduce the size of the government, etc...) Voter LOVE that stuff. They eat it up like it's candy.

Invariably, the job still needs to be performed. And, when there is no government employee to do it due to leaner government initiatives, the Government has no choice but to go to a contract. And, that contract knows that it has the Government by the short and curlies. And they take full advantage of that.

The whole story is that the contractors can pull down that kind of scratch because the voting public would never support a candidate that would allow a government large enough to provide all the goods and services required by the public.

Answer 3

The milatry has quite enough people trained for security purposes, where they don't have to pay that kind of money.
Just another way to funnel our tax dollars to wealthy friends of the empire.

Answer 4

If the gov. did what blackwater is doing now, then we would have to have more troops over there, which would hurt the dems.

Answer 5

Absolutely not! The government isn't meant to be a cash cow, though that's how it's been used by a lot of companies.

Answer 6

Absolutely not.
But if you're a republican, anything goes.
Steal all you can.